Sunday, May 23, 2010

Doin’ Durango

One of the places we wanted to see while in the 4 Corners area was, of course, the 4 Corners Monument. Guess what? Closed till the end of June. Guess we’ll have to come back some day so we can do that touristy thing of putting one foot and one hand each in four different states at the same time. That’s not a picture I had planned to put on the blog!

So, our alternate plan was to go see Durango. It was a little breezy out again today – but not near as dusty and hazy as yesterday.

Our first stop was – you guessed it! – the Visitor Center. Yup. Closed. But they did have a few brochures outside, so we checked ‘em out and started at the Colorado Division of Wildlife Fish Hatchery. They had a nice little museum including a video about the hatchery. Then we wandered outside and checked out the three kinds of fish they raise here for stocking purposes: brook, rainbow and brown trout.

On our way back to the car, we walked over to the Animas River’s edge to watch the kayakers & rafters. Sure looked like fun…

Then we drove a few more blocks to the downtown area. We’ve seen some pretty depressed downtown areas in New Mexico so it was fun to spend an hour or two in one that appears to be doing great. There were hardly any empty store fronts.

We thought the upstairs condos in this building might be cool to live in if we ever settle down again. Well, maybe not. Besides the price, the one or two for sale were in the 2,000 square foot range. Too big for us!

And, lots of neat, historic buildings including this hotel.

Gorgeous wood above the entry to the lobby.

Nice mural down a couple more blocks.

We even saw some deer when we were nearly home! This herd of about 18 was busy munching on the new green grass. Nice ending to a nice day!